Monday, February 23, 2015

That's right, we done lost our minds. With the house being in a mess because of the construction, and with us doing extra work with the animals because of the cold, and with the house temperatures struggling to get out of the 50's, we lost our minds. "Why?" you ask. Well, because we went and bought this.

And while we were buying this, we ended up buy this too.

That's right, TWO puppies. Sweet little Australian Shepherds puppies.

They look so sweet and innocent. but one little move.....

And it's on!

And on...

And on....

And on...

After this romp, they both went into their carrier and went to sleep. I've had Australian dogs before, but I've never had Australian puppies. They are sooooo smart. Scary smart. They are getting the pee pad thing down pretty good. Although right now, they are like watching two toddlers without diapers. Ya gotta watch where ya step. lol

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

I've lost my get up and go. I have NO desire to do anything, nothing, nada. That's one of the reasons you haven't been blogging. I haven't even read any of the blogs that I normally follow. I am lucky to get out of bed in the mornings. I'm not depressed. I still laugh and things, I just have lost all gumption to do anything.

I'm blaming the horrible weather that we're having. It's snowing and blowing and it is cold, face hurting cold. I do do the animal chores. They take me four times as long as they normally do. I make sure everyone has fresh hay or straw, water, and feed. Everyone gets tucked in so that this horrible wind (windchill around -30) doesn't get to them. That's some dangerous stuff right there.

After I do the animal chores, I come into the house and make me some nice hot tea. I need it after being out. I sit down on the couch for a little bit to warm up and drink my tea. I'm putting off bringing more wood into the house. My knees, my ankle, and my wrist (a problem that I've had for years) hurts badly. I also think the reason I hurt is because the bone chilling cold. I'm hoping that when it warms up I won't hurt as much. I think going to break down and go to the doctor. I hate going to the doctor but I'm tired of the hurting.

I finally get the energy to go and get a wheelbarrow full of wood into the house. This should last until right before we go to bed. Then we get another wheelbarrow full to last through the night. I usually get up through the night and add more wood to the stove. I let Hubby sleep because he has to get up early and go to work. It's the least I can do. I get to stay under the warm covers a few more hours.

Yes, the whole getting up early with Hubby didn't pan out. Right now is not the best time to get up early. That just means I will have to crank the wood burner up and that means using more wood. Wood that is very low right now. We have 55 acres of pasture, but not much of wooded area. We usually have to go off the farm for wood. And when it's this cold, I really don't want to have to get out and cut wood. So instead of getting up and trying to get the house warm, I'm just staying in bed, under the covers. That's were it feels the best right now anyway.

We have put up some of the insulation board. We still have more to go, but we are working on it. It's hard to have construction going on in the area that you also have to live in. I don't like having insulation in my morning eggs. It doesn't taste all that good. lol. The little bit of insulation that we do have up is helping quite a bit. I didn't realize how much it would help. Hopefully as we put up more, it will help more with keeping it warm in here.

Well, I guess I'm done complaining. I just wanted you to know what was going on around here. I'm hoping for warmer weather with everything that I have. I don't really know if that will help though. lol

Thursday, February 5, 2015

My name is Sherri and I'm a perfectionist. Not many people know that about me. To look at me you would never know. I'm overweight. I have a dirty house. Our farm is a mess. My car looks like something exploded inside of it. But yet, I know, I'm a perfectionist.

I was watching The Homesteading Channel on my Roku (best channel EVER!) and I would see things that someone was doing, something simple like pulling the cord to start a chainsaw. They used that chainsaw to cut up some REALLY small branches of wood for a fire that they were using. In my mind I thought," He pulled that chainsaw wrong. Why would he be wasting his time cutting up that small wood? Why not go for bigger chunks of wood?" Then I realized, why does that matter? He got the chainsaw started and he cut up branches that he had so he didn't waste the wood. But yet, all I could see was how he could be "better".

I also have this same attitude toward cleaning my house. I REALLY wanted to clean my microwave.(I use it for storage more than anything.) But in my mind, I knew that if I cleaned of the kitchen table I would see a bigger area cleaned. But I REALLY wanted to clean the microwave. I know this is not a big deal for some of you, but I will have these conflicts in my brain for a long time. Long enough to where I won't get ANYTHING done. I should have just cleaned the microwave and had at least ONE thing done.

I'm the same way with my diet. If I fall of the wagon and eat a chocolate chip cookie, well then, my diet is ruined for that day. I might as well just eat more junk. I must be weak. I can't stay on a diet. See how my mind works. Scary I know.

What makes it worse is I expect other people to live up to my high standards. Standards that I, myself, can't live up to. And because of this, I get mad at people for being messy or not starting a chainsaw right. :0) At least they can start a chainsaw! I can't!

So I'm going to try something new this weekend. (I'm starting small) I'm going to not be so critical about stuff. (I'm sure my family will be happy. :0) ) If I want to clean a small area the size of a dime, I'm going to do it. At least that small area will be done. If I eat that cookie, I will say, "Wow! That tasted good." and them move on. I'm going to do things that I've wanted to do but always worried that I couldn't do them "right". I'm going to quit thinking that I should be doing something else instead of what I want to do. This will be very hard for me. As I look back, I've been like this for a while now. I'm my own worst critic.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Uh, let me clear that up. Hare, not Hair. One of my rabbit does had a litter of kits yesterday. This was her first litter so I wasn't expecting much. I found 2 of them outside the "nest" she made. One was a Popsicle, the other wasn't THAT cold, yet. I've always heard that a dead rabbit isn't a dead rabbit unless it's a warm dead rabbit. I heard that if you warm the kit up sometimes, sometimes, it will "come back to life." So in the "incubator" it went. Let me tell you, it felt weird.

Why did I breed rabbits in the middle of the winter? Well, so far, the winter we've been having this year, hasn't been real bad. The temperatures have been running anywhere from upper thirties to the lower fifties. That's just about perfect for rabbits. They can handle colder temps a lot better than they can handle the heat. So, that's why I'd been breeding them. But just my luck, every time I had a rabbit due, the temps plummeted. Always. If you want a cold day, just tell me a month in advanced. I'll make sure one of our rabbits are due that day. *Just shaken my head.*

Anyway, I was hoping that I could help this little feller "come back" in the hope that I could return it to the nest later. I noticed that the doe had a small bunch of hair picked back in the back of her cage. Notice I didn't say in her kitting box. Oooooh no. She had them outside the box. Another sign of a first time momma. I didn't look to see if she had anymore back there. She is the most skittish of all my rabbits. I let her be. I'll check later to see.

I carried that little kit in my bra for an hour hoping to warm it up. Every time I would bring it out to check on it, I could have sworn I felt it move. So, back in it would go. Finally it got down to where I just couldn't carry it around anymore. Those little claws can be sharp! Country Girl, who's in nursing school, brought out her stethoscope. We were going to make sure. She said she heard a faint heart beat. Back in it went. I was trying to position it so that it wouldn't smother. Not much room in there! Finally it was in there for a few hours and it was warm. We checked for a heartbeat one more time. Nothing. The little booger had died. We had tried. It just wasn't meant to be.

After this last round of the "let's see if we can pick the coldest day to have babies" game, I've decided to wait a couple months before I breed again. I swear if it turns hot, I give up.........

Sunday, February 1, 2015

I thought I would post a picture of the only measurable snow that we've had this year. Not that I'm complaining! If it was up to me, it would stay around 60 to 65 degrees all year round. But then, we wouldn't have tomatoes. Well, maybe a few warmer days so that I could get the garden going real good. LOL.

Speaking of the garden, I've been trying to plan on what I'm going to plant this year. I want to try different things along with our garden standards. One thing I plan on growing is radishes. I didn't thing I liked radishes until Hubby forced asked me to try them. I really liked them! So this year I'm going to try growing them. I've heard a few people say they can grow good ones and some can't. We shall see.

I also have been looking into getting more fruit trees. Apples, peach, and pear are what we're hoping to get. We already have one peach and one apple tree. We DID have 4 apples and 3 peach trees, but between goats, sheep, and deer, well, they kind of did them in. I'm hoping we have those problems fixed now. Maybe, just maybe, I can get some fruit trees started and producing fruit soon.

Since it has been a little cold around here, we've been working on the house. We've found a place that we can buy insulation board. We got half inch to a full inch thick board. We were told that the full inch is like having 8 inches of regular insulation. When I say board, I mean something that's the size of drywall. In fact, the half inch board LOOKS like drywall. So, we put the half inch up on the walls and the inch board on the ceiling. This will help with the loss of heat in our basement. Hubby put up some on the outside wall and you can already tell a difference. Once we get it on the ceiling, it will be REAL warm in here. It will be nice to have a nice warm house! I forgot what that was like! lol

Well, I'm hoping things have settled down to where I can start writing more often. I want to start making it a priority again.

About Me

I grew up on 2 acres of land north of Columbus OH. Mom had a small garden,I had a horse,and Dad had his tractor, but we were far from what you would call homesteaders. It wasn't until I moved to Kentucky and married my husband did I start to have a small interest in growing a garden again. We have a few head of cattle, a small herd of horses, a flock of chickens and 2 dogs. And the garden, it keeps growing and growing each year. We decided we want to be more self-reliant. I don't know much about homesteading, but I'm willing to learn as I go. Oh, this could get good.